Name: Dock Hands
Difficulty: D
Location: Shippuugakure
Reward: 5,000 Ryo
Experience: 25 Experience
Objective: Load at least 10 crates throughout the day.
Description: The dock is short on workers today, so ninja have been hired to keep the harbor running smoothly. You are in charge of moving crates on to ships. You are required to meet your daily quota or else you don't get your reward. You can move the crates on the ship with whatever means you can think of, but keep in mind, if you break any of the crates or things inside, your reward will be confiscated and you will still have to finish the work day, so have fun.

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Tekishi had sort of been putting this off for a little while and he really had no rhyme or reason as to why or how come. The only real reason that seemed to keep coming up was life, he guessed. He had been busy, with his meeting with the Umikage, healing wounds he had suffered in his spar with the deadly determined Uchiha Ren’ai, and meeting Thaddeus near shipwreck cove. The Harbor was a place Tekishijin still had yet to frequent, but that was now time to come to an end.
       
The harbor was bustling with people of all shapes and sizes, color and creed. There wasn’t a single point of interest you could lay your eyes on for a moment of relaxation or relief. The interesting could be found everywhere you looked. Tekishijin tried his best just to mold into the crowd here and not stand out as a shinobi of any sort. Not that anyone here may not take kindly to the presence of a shinobi, depending on what he or she was doing, but for the pursuit of following out the shinobi rules. Be one with your surroundings.  The simple fact was that there was no way for him to be one with his surroundings if he weren't dressed to play the part.

He wore a bandana over his forehead which held his hair up and out of his eyes. He managed to find a holey t-shirt that was fit for only a crew man. The pants he wore were jeans when they were manufactured and distributed originally, now they were just a tattered and ripped mix between capris and shorts. Worn boots which had an uncomfortable fit to them, but did the job for making him look the part. They were the last piece to his ensemble.

"Hey you! Yeah, I'm spitting at you down there with the bandana and heels!" Tekishi's face had lost blood when he heard the joke about his boots; however, he knew he could do nothing to physically harm the guy in return. He could do something along the lines of what the guy had done to him: take a jab at his ego and his pride. "Ahoy!" Tekishi called back. "Are you looking for me?"
"Only if you're the extra help on the rock for the day. Won't be needing you otherwise, 'lest you could bring me on up a freshly tapped keg and two tavern girls with no undies!" The mates busted into a roarous laughter as each of them could wholeheartedly agree on beer and women despite their lack of shared vision in pretty much every other area of life. The sea could cause some strange changes in a man, that was for sure.

"Looks like I'll just be able to help with the workload today than boys," he replied. The pin, his voice, slid into their balloon filled of hopes and dreams of beer and women and popped it right away. They each let out sighs and groans of disappointment. Even the blind could see that these men would prefer the later over two extra hands that would ease their workload for the day, any day. Not today though. Today they would be grouped with little ol’ Tekishijin, who was there primarily to get what he needed to get done, done, and move on with his life. “Where do you guys want me?”
“You can load up those five to ten crates down there near the aft side of the ship. I think that will be about all that we need taken care of today. Remember not to break or drop any of them! If you do, that is going to be your ass!” Tekishijin smiled and then casually moved away from them and down towards where he was directed to be.

He moved himself into position between the first crate and the ship. There was the ramp which led from the dock up to the ship or vice versa and could be used either way in regards to getting the goods up or down, onto or from, the ship. Tekishi had another way of going about things though, or at least he had taken this mission with another means of going about things on his mind. {I want you to help me move these crates,} he thought to the Nibi no Kani. He had thought it in a whispering fashion, as though there could have possibly been a third party in his head and listening in on their conversation. [Help you move crates?] The Nibi was sort of confused as to why Tekishi would ask him such a question for such a ridiculously easy task such as this. [You do not need my help moving the crates,] he answered. [You’re a big boy now. I am sure that you can handle this,] the Nibi chuckled at the boys request, of course just being his traditional self - antagonistic - and then made his presence disappear.

It was weird how he could do that. It was almost as if he could turn himself on and off. Tekishijin pondered this for a while as he began to muster up the chakra to begin moving these crates. He wanted to come here particularly just to train his suiton affinity. If he were to try and move the crates by fire they would be burnt before they even made it aboard the ship. At least with the suiton element, at most they would get a little damp and the crates were already made to deal with that. They had a protective coating which repelled water to some extent. It wasn’t a bullet proof water repellent but it definitely kept the goods from getting deluge kind of wet.
“Pfft… I do not need you,” he stated to himself as the chakra that he started to accumulate he would begin pushing up to his mouth and begin blowing bubbles. At first these bubbles were very small bubbles and they just weren’t catching the shape and size that Tekishi wanted and needed for them to be so that he could complete the mission as he so desired. But after a solid half an hour of trying to blow chakra bubbles he had finally got it. The next part, which took him another thirty minutes was getting the fully sized chakra bubble to encase the crate and have enough strength to hold and carry the crate.
“Here we go,” he spoke to himself as he slowly walked up the first crate onto the ship an hour and fifteen minutes later from getting into position. He slowly walked it and as he walked it up onto the dock he did it with such care and caution that he moved the crate only an inch off the floor before moving it along so as if it were to drop, Tekishijin had figured that an inch drop would be just like a bumping a wave out at sea, it wouldn’t hurt the crates or the merchandise inside -- whatever was inside. He continued to move the remainder of the crates from the dock up to the ship in this same fashion. It was an easy mission that helped him train his suiton element a little bit.

1,209 words = 120 exp + 25 exp from mission

Name: Off to Sea, You Land Lubber!
Difficulty: C
Location: Shippuugakure
Reward: 15,000 Ryo
Experience: 50 Experience
Objective: Protect the small shipping ship.
Description: You have been assigned to protect a small ship during a short trip towards a nearby island village and back. Make sure no pirates, sea animals, or anything of the sort attack or cause any harm to the ship, and help out wherever needed, like cleaning the deck. Can't have you laying around on a ship for the entire mission. The trip is over when the ship is docked at the harbor. Try not to drown.



“Okay!” The voice boomed over-head as though a microphone, which was not even in existence yet, or at least Tekishi had thought it wasn’t, was being spoken through.

{Sheesh, can this guy talk any louder?} He thought to himself as he seemed to be flooded in down to the dock right next to the ship which he was standing on top of, bellowing down from. The mass of men and rugged women who knew nothing but the docks and the sea all their lives that he was surrounded by moved him along as opposed to him walking down himself. It was almost as if he had been grabbed by the shoulders, lifted and placed in the spot where he now stood.

“Okay you jelly back, sea biscuit eating, bunch of loafers!!!” He paused letting the insult marinate on the consciousness’ of the eager… or semi-eager, rather, individuals who stood at the base of the ship like sardines in a can; sorely uncomfortable and reeking of an unsavory combination of smells and stenches, body odor from their work and the very strong scent of raw fish that fumigated the area as a whole already.

“I hope you all know what you’re signing up for because once you get on board this ship there ain’t no getting off it! Not unless I throw you off the plank me self ya see? That would make you unfit for this mission as designated by the inspection and supervision of your commanding officer,” he continued to bellow. “Or something of the sorts like that,” he mumbled.

“If you do not know what you are here for then go ahead and get to your stations. If this is your first time on the ship going to sea then please report to me directly! Dismissed!” The crowd broke like roaches under the newly turned on kitchen light. There Tekishijin stood, relieved that he was no longer wedged between the funk from one person to the stench of the next. He could smile about that, but he didn’t as the stench would have made him pay for it otherwise.

He did as he was instructed and reported to the captain of the ship. He was last in line and he had preferred to wait and take his time to get to speak to the Captain as he had assumed that there wasn’t going to be much talking but a whole lot of yelling. He stepped forward and waited for the next person to get his instructions. It was hard trying to block out the tasks that would be assigned to another person as the Captain just spoke so loudly. From all the years having been at sea, he suspected that his volume adjuster had broke and it was now permanently stuck to obnoxiously loud. He stepped forward a single step as the person at the front of the line shuffled off to carry the duties that was assigned to them. Eventually Tekishijin was the last one remaining.

“And what’s your name there boy?”
“Sir, I’m not a boy. Please, refrain from calling me such, otherwise I may be subject to extreme bouts of dislike towards you.”
They stared at each other for a moment. The captain at Tekishi to see if the guy was bluffing him or pulling his leg by any means; Tekishi at the Captain to make sure that he had registered that he was deathly serious, and not playing around by any means.
“Okay, lad. What’s your name?”
“Koten Tekishijin, sir.”
“Great, great. You’re the only shinobi we have for this here ride. You will be taking care of ship protection and any other tasks that may be needing some attention to. For instance you can go down to the lower deck and give a look through to make sure that all the sealant is still sealed adequately. When you’ve checked that, report back to me.”

Tekishijin nodded and walked away solemnly, as though telling himself that he should not have taken this mission. {Sheesh, I wish I wouldn’t have chosen this mission,} he thought as he squeezed his way past the overweight fella that was coming up the steps. There wasn’t enough space on the steps for both of them but Tekishi had already started coming down when he realized the boulder of a man heading up. Eventually he spilled out down in the bottom of the ship. Swinging around the lantern he had taken off the wall he looked around for the clear gooey substance which the captain had described as being the sealant. He walked all the way around the bottom of the ship’s deck and made sure that all the holes he found had been plugged and sealed already. They were all set.

He returned to the Captain and let him know that all the sealant was still sealed and that they shouldn’t have any problems taking off. The next thing the Captain gave him to do was to make his way up to the little doohickey where he could sit and watch as far as the horizon would allow him. There was a lot to see out there on the open sea, but how much of it he would actually get the chance to be blessed with the vision of, only the most high would ever know.

“Anything in particular you want me to do while I’m up there?”
“No, just make sure that none of ‘dem damn rats get to us,” the captain answered.

Tekishi grumbled under his breathe and then turned to look around. They were already far from shore and he hadn’t noticed it. It must’ve been a lot more sealant covering up holes down in the deck below than he had originally noticed. It wasn’t much of work, well, from Tekishi’s viewpoint that wasn’t work at all, just a nuisance, but he did it. He knew either way that he would get paid for doing such, and maybe in the process of finding the sealants’ or dealing with them in the ways that he had, there was a great shinobi lesson to be discovered.

As he climbed to the top of the doohickey, where he could perch and rest, he scanned around, finding nothing, seeing nothing for miles and miles. {I doubt anything will happen on this mission,} he thought to himself, as he continued to look outward and onward. There was a part of him that had hoped that something, anything exciting would go ahead and take place already. Then there was the other part of him which had hoped that nothing had taken place, and that he would return home from this trip, fifteen thousand ryou richer, just for counting sealant on the lower deck.

That’s when it happened. An alarm had sounded and it wasn’t the one that Tekishi was given to sound if he had spotted anything weird, unfamiliar, or peculiar carrying on about the horizon. Unfortunately for the crew, Tekishi had been watching nothing other than the underside of his eyelids as the rocking and sooth saying of the boat quietly and quickly put him to sleep.

“Pirates! Pirates! Pirates!” yelled the voice. The shuffling of many men and women below getting into their defensive positions to stop the boarding of the ship could now be heard mostly over the cries and shouts of those who have been on the ship enough how to best handle the pirates, or ‘rats as the crew liked to call them, to those who had little to no experience at all in this situation. For Tekishi, although he had not had much experience in this exact predicament, it still boiled down to a fight. One which he would be remissed to lose. He had not lost to the tenacity of Uchiha Ren’ai, there was no way he would let the ships of the old crewman that have now gone rogue, get close to the ship he had been contracted to protect.

He created a few hand seals in rapid succession, swelling a mass of heated chakra into his mouth as he stepped up on to the edge of the doohickey where he had been sleeping before (and fake looking out), to jump and push himself up in to the air. Tekishi wasn’t a great swimmer so his jump wasn’t out into the middle of the sea, it was over the deck of his own ship, but it had given him a better angle at the ships that was attempting to surround him. It was only the two, and there was only about ten or more rats on each one. Each ship was running with the bare minimum of crew required to make the ship go without any completely obvious hitch in the schematics.

Tekishi relinquished the fireballs from his chest, about five at each ship, at various places. All of them had landed as the genin had intended them to, since the pirates weren’t suspecting a shinobi to be on board with this ship. That had totally screwed all of their plans, Tekishi had known it. There was simply no way to calculate in the risk of going up against a shinobi, for their mastery and understanding of chakra was above and beyond anything that a regular citizen, which pirates were in the eyes of shinobi, could fight back against.

As the pirates dealt with the newly made fires that had singed through and began to torch the deck, the crew of the ship had all gotten into place, and were now relinquishing the ammunition that they had set sail with. Rats died from both fire, drowning and gunshot wounds until they had turned and retreated. The roar of the crew together as one was something to smile at, which Tekishi did. He was happy that this band of brothers, no matter how rough they are on the exterior, could come together in the most crucial moments and defend their ship. There was no need for Tekishijin. He had hoped that they knew that, which during their celebration they seemed to know it too well, leaving out any mention of the help that Tekishijin had provided to them.

The next day at sea Tekishi met with the captain and finally received his compliment for helping to deal with the rats. He was given this day off unless they were to return. No chores, or little annoying tasks to check or double check which someone else had not tended to. Tekishi was allowed to climb back up to the doohickey and return to a peaceful, flow of the water induced nap. Just before he had drifted off to sleep he counted the remaining days it would take for them to return home, yawned, then crossed his arms over his chest. He had to shift his shoulders a bit to adjust to the doohickey once again but once he found that same spot he fell asleep in last time, he followed suit and fell asleep once more.

Words: 1.83o / 1.ooo [1]
C Rank Mission: +50 Exp
1.8oo words / 1o: +180 Exp
Total Exp Gained: +230 Exp
Total Ryo Gained: 15,ooo